You’ve all heard of start-ups that get launched out of someone’s garage.  Well, Thrive blasted off out of a coffee shop, Bloc 11 in Union Square to be exact.  And, we continue to do some of our best thinking, our best drinking (caffeinated beverages only), and our best connecting there.

Yesterday’s Bloc 11 conversation centered around key topics for the coming months. Top on our list is planning out the details of our upcoming fundraiser at The Independent on May 16. Big, over-the-top, fancy events are not my cup of tea (or pint of beer) even though I know that they often provide needed funding for worthwhile non-profits.  So, rest assured this will not be one of those big fancy events.  It will be big.  And it will be an event. And it will raise much needed funds.  And it will bring together as many non-fancy people as we can find who care, and who want to have fun building community while feeding hungry kids. As the saying goes, “Be there or be square!”

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In reviewing recent donations to our fundraising site, I came upon a donation in an unusual amount. As always, I sent the donor a personalized thank you, and noted that if s/he were able to tell me, I’d love to know the significance of the donation amount.  Here’s what I heard back.

“My daughter is a student at PHA and the donation really came from her. We divide her allowance between 4 categories, Spend, Save, Give, and Invest. It had been a while since we discussed any gifting, so when she suggested PHA Thrive be her ‘Give’ for the year, the amount was what she had saved up. We’d done some of the math and our daughter was happy to find that her donation would cover one of her classmates for the rest of the school year and beyond.”

Given the state of the world these days how often do we hear about “collateral damage”?  It’s heartwarming to learn that PHA Thrive’s efforts to feed hungry children encourages such “collateral good”, allowing all of us the chance to experience the importance and reward of “Give”.

I am happy to report that as of today, March 6 we have provided needed food support to 20 children over 1 school vacation week and 3 weekends, providing 320 breakfasts and 320 lunches during times when these children may have gone without.  Pretty great, hunh?

But don’t take my word for it.  On Monday, March 2, Nurse Maureen received the following email message:  “Hi I  would just like to contact you to say thank you for the PHA THRIVE program. Its is so nice of you guys and it has helped us. … Thank you again so much.”

Meanwhile, though we started off pretty rough, and without much help from the winter weather, the process is getting better and a bit smoother each week.  Our patron saints at Food For Free upped their contribution with two cases of 100% juice boxes to accompany our weekly produce allocation. (Have I mentioned yet today how much I LOVE Food for Free?)  And we’ve worked out some better systems for packaging and distribution.  Just take a look at the neat packages put together for today.

Next up – we’re working on a variety of fundraising ideas for the spring.  Not to give anything away but one of them involves hors d’oeuvres and drinks of the adult variety in a local establishment that starts with “Inde..”.  Another involves a night out listening to music performed by our own Ms. D and her band in another adult venue.  Stay tuned, and quietly chant “hunger free PHA”…